This invention pertains to the art of a termination or dead end appliance for a load bearing cable or the like and, more particularly, such an appliance for use with fiber optic cables. The invention is particularly applicable to a fiber optic cable employing helically-formed gripping members along its load bearing length and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it will be appreciated that the invention has broader applications and may be advantageously employed in other cable environments.
Prior art dead end devices typically incorporate a pair of interracting members that exert a tensile stress on a supported cable. By way of example, the commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,811 to Smrekar, et al., issued Dec. 4, 1973, illustrates one such prior art device having a wedge member disposed between a cable and helical gripping members. The wedge member cooperates with a tapered bore of a surrounding housing to provide a secure dead end arrangement for the cable and surrounding gripping members. This type of construction has been found wholly satisfactory and advantageous for use with conventional cable, conductors, and the like.
The advent of fiber optic technology has presented a need for satisfactorily dead ending a fiber optic cable. Fiber optic cables present specialized problems not encountered in other wire cable dead end constructions. Specifically, glass fiber cannot be exposed to extreme radial compressive forces. Therefore, in an effort to prevent damage to the glass fibers, a dead end device used in this environment must distribute the radial compressive loading over a predetermined axial area or section of the fibers.
One disadvantage encountered with the closed housing dead end illustrated in the above-noted patent is the requirement that the dead end housing be threaded over the fiber optic cable at each dead end location. These lengths can be rather substantial, and the installation process is generally quite tedious and cumbersome for an installer. As an alternative, the cable must be cut at each dead end location. This approach really is not practical since cutting the fiber optic cable and incorporating a splice case with connectors is expensive and time consuming.
Therefore, it has been considered desirable to provide an open ended housing that permits a secure dead end arrangement for fiber optic cables. The subject invention is deemed to meet these needs and others, and successfully overcome the above-noted deficiencies in the prior art.